Am I supposed to stop posting cookie recipes after Christmas? Unfortunately I’m terribly disorganized, and many pre-holiday photos are still lingering sadly in the tunneling clutter of my file system. But today the last cookie recipe sees the light of day! Although I suspect there will be more to come. I mean, what occasion are cookies not appropriate for?

These cookies are another recipe that’s naturally gluten-free, and impossibly easy. Plus no butter, which would normally be sacrilege but in meringue recipes is actually acceptable (especially when there’s a large quantity of chocolate). Egg whites are beaten with sugar into a thick cream, and then you add cocoa powder and chocolate for intense chocolate flavour. A roll in powdered sugar makes the cookies all pretty and snowy-looking, which I’m a sucker for, and it turns out many others are too!

I sort of expected a recipe based on meringue to turn out airy and light, but these cookies are seriously rich, dense, and fudgy. If you’re anything like me, you will love them. The only thing I minded was they were a tiny bit too sweet for my tastes. I thought about skipping the sugar roll at the end, but it makes them so pretty that I don’t think I can leave it out. Instead I might try reducing the sugar in the dry ingredient mix by half a cup or so.

The media lied to me! Despite my massive consumption of their much-touted ‘superfoods’ – mainly in the form of cheap sushi (fish oils!) and things with cranberries baked into them (antioxidants!) – I have somehow come down with a sniffly nose, scratchy throat, and a case of flu denial. Sure, I didn’t get the flu shot, but I reasoned that I am tough and such. This is clearly just a minor cold and will be gone by tomorrow.

Anyhow, even though the cookies I’m about to talk about didn’t save me from this cold, they are still definitely worth making. They’re an awesome oatmeal cookie packed with three kinds of chocolate chips and fresh cranberries, and then drizzled with more chocolate to top it all off. They tasted wonderful. They had that great sweet-tart combination you get with cranberries, and they were sooo crispy and delicious right out of the oven. I was worried that they would get hard overnight, but they actually stayed soft for quite a few days. Also, they’re really pretty! Much fancier than a typical chocolate chip cookie, but just as easy and delicious. They’re an excellent addition to your holiday baking, and a great gift as well. I gave some to a friend and he liked them so much that he ate five for breakfast. Although he did regret that.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat butter and both sugars in large bowl until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add flour mixture and oats and stir until blended. Stir in all chocolate chips and cranberries.

Gently microwave chocolate until melted and smooth. Using small spoon, drizzle melted chocolate over cookies . Let stand until chocolate sets, about 1-2 hours. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Store in airtight container at room temperature.)

Oh flour, how I love thee, let me count the ways! 1: cake. 2: cookies. 3: warm bread. And so on, I think you get the idea.

But in fact, flour is very unkind to a small segment of the population. Specifically, it creates much unpleasantness for those people with Celiac disease, which comes with pretty tricky food restrictions. The gluten-free diet rules out anything with flour, as well as several other foods (beer! ack!), but it would be unacceptably tragic not to be able to eat baked goods. And so, after a few discussions with a friend who has Celiac, I set my sights on baking something delicious and gluten-free. Then it took me at least a month to get around to it.

The main obstacle was that every recipe seemed to require four different flours which I didn’t yet own, and were pretty expensive. In the end, I went in completely the opposite direction: flourless! Highly delicious and definitely no gluten. My nearly flourless chocolate cake would have been easy to adapt, but I wanted something portable that I could take to share with others. The answer, then, was flourless peanut butter cookies: I didn’t know they existed, but I’m so glad I do now.

I can’t pretend that these are exactly the same as regular peanut butter cookies: the lack of flour makes them a bit prone to falling apart, and the texture is different. But they’re still soft and peanut buttery and full of flavour – my friend said this was the best peanut butter cookie she’d had since her diagnosis. So I pronounce my first attempt at gluten-free a success, and might even go buy some fancy flours soon. Those who know me won’t be surprised that I didn’t take much convincing.

1 cup peanut butter (if you use a natural brand, you should probably add salt)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 350.

With hand mixer, beat peanut butter with sugars until well combined, about 2 minutes. Add egg and baking soda and beat for another 2 minutes. Roll dough into walnut-sized balls (it’ll be crumbly, just squeeze it lots), place on baking sheet and press down with fork. Bake until lightly browned, about 10 minutes.